Getty Kevin Durant and Carmelo Anthony at the 2013 All-Star Game.
Former New York Knicks and Brooklyn Nets guard Jamal Crawford has never been selected to the All-Star team and has never won an NBA championship. Despite the fact, he is still one of the most highly respected guards in NBA history. As a 3-time Sixth Man of the Year award winner, Crawford has developed a reputation for having some of the nastiest handles of any player in NBA history.
While it is what he is best known for, Crawford is much more than a guard with filthy ball-handling skills. In his career, he has averaged 14.6 points, 2.2 rebounds, and 3.4 assists per game. He has also established himself as one of the best pure scorers that the game has ever seen. Crawford played one on one with Nets’ Kevin Durant last summer and detailed to Landon Buford what it was like to go head up with another pure scorer.
“It was a seven games series and when he shot over me it wasn’t like he couldn’t see [me] with his wingspan,” Crawford said of his experience playing against Durant said per Landon Buford. “If I could grow to his height or he shrunk to 6’5 we would have similar games.”
Jamal Crawford on 1 on 1 games with @KDTrey5 last summer:
“It was a seven games series and when he shot over me it wasn’t like he couldn’t see with his wingspan. If I could grew to his height or he shrunk to 6’5 we would have similar games.”
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Jamal Crawford Picks Nets To Win 2022 NBA Title
Durant and the Nets fell short of the title last year due to a plethora of injuries that they suffered in the playoffs. This included two major losses in their stars James Harden and Kyrie Irving. The Nets are coming into 2021 fully healthy and for that reason, Crawford is picking them as the favorite to win the 2022 NBA Finals over LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers.
“Brooklyn Nets are my favorites barring injuries winning it all, but the Lakers will come out the west,” Crawford said per Landon Buford.
Jamal Crawford on Brooklyn:
“Brooklyn Nets are my favorites barring injuries winning it all, but the Lakers will come out the west.”
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Kendrick Perkins Says Kevin Durant Is ‘Best in the World’
Despite not having Harden and Irving for a good chunk of the series, the Nets came extremely close to eliminating Giannis Antetokounmpo and the eventual NBA champion Milwaukee Bucks. This was largely due to the play of Durant who turned it up to the next level during the series. He averaged 34.7 points, 9.3 rebounds, and 4.7 assists per game. This included monster performances in Game 5 and Game 7 where he scored 49 and 48 points respectively.
After putting up such a herculean performance in the second round of the playoffs his former Oklahoma City Thunder teammate Kendrick Perkins believes he has officially dethroned LeBron as the best player in the world.
“Here’s the thing… Kevin Durant IS the best player in the world and it’s about damn time somebody dethrone King James from being the best player in the world,” Perkins said to Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson of Bally Sports.
“We’re talking about a guy that’s going on Year 19. I don’t really know if LeBron James even cares about being the best player in the world anymore, going on at the age of 37, right? So, it’s about time that somebody finally stepped up to the plate and dethrone him because he’s been carrying the torch for so long.”
Kevin Durant IS the best player in the world and it’s about damn time somebody dethrone King James from being the best player in the world @KendrickPerkins tells me via @BallySports.
Already a two-time NBA Finals Most Valuable Player award winner with the Golden State Warriors, Durant can further cement his legacy this season, by delivering the Nets their first NBA title.
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Ex-Knicks Star Details Time He Played 1 on 1 With Nets Kevin Durant